To Give, Divine

Investing guru Warren Buffett -- above right, with Bill and Melinda Gates -- announced last week that he will gradually transfer more than $30 billion of stock in his Berkshire Hathaway firm to the Gates Foundation, which works to improve global health and U.S. education. Each installment must be spent in the year it's given; the $1.5 billion pledge for 2006 will double the foundation's current spending--and boost its already powerful impact.

The donations and pledges made by Warren Buffett--and Bill and Melinda Gates, who have given nearly $26 billion to their foundation so far--eclipse those of other great U.S. philanthropists